Algirdas Julien Greimas

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Algirdas Julius Greimas (born March 9, 1917 in Tula, died 1992 in Paris), was a Lithuanian linguist who contributed to the theory of semiotics, and also researched Lithuanian mythology. While living in France his middle name in print was used in francophonic form Julien rather than Lithuanian Julius.

Greimas studied law in Lithuania, and linguistics in Grenoble (1936-1939). In 1939 he returned to Lithuania for his military service. In 1944 he returned to France, and in 1949 he received his PhD from the Sorbonne. He lectured at the universities of Ankara, Istanbul, Poitiers and Alexandria. While in Alexandria he met Roland Barthes with whom he maintained a close relation. He was a professor at the Social Sciences Postgraduate Studies School in Paris. From 1965 on, he headed semiotic-linguistic research in Paris, laying the foundations for the Paris School of Semiotics.

Greimas later began researching and reconstructing Lithuanian mythology basing his work on the methods of Georges Dumézil, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Marcel Detienne. His results were published as Of Gods and Men (1979) and In Search of National Memory (1990).

Greimas is at the origin of the semiotic square (or semantic rectangle).

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